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Measuring the pulse of urban green infrastructure: vegetation dynamics across residential landscapes
Citation:
Ossola, A. AND M. Hopton. Measuring the pulse of urban green infrastructure: vegetation dynamics across residential landscapes. US-IALE, Baltimore, MD, April 09 - 14, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
We evaluate the spatial variation of urban vegetation structure through time, in relation to socio-economic and ecological drivers operating at landscape scale.
Description:
Vegetation can be an important component of urban green infrastructure. Its structure is a complex result of the socio-ecological milieu and management decisions, and it can influence numerous ecohydrological processes such as stormwater interception and evapotranspiration. Despite recent investigations on drivers affecting urban vegetative cover, little information exists on how vegetation structure varies across urban landscapes, both spatially and temporally. In Denver, CO and Milwaukee, WI the structure of urban vegetation (i.e., height and volume) was measured across the entire urban landscape at a 5-year interval through integration of airborne LiDAR and multispectral satellite imagery. Data were used to calculate vegetation growth and loss (e.g., stem removal). Across residential areas, both vegetation height and volume increased over time, as did vegetative cover, albeit a lesser extent. Vegetation structure was significantly correlated to the neighborhood age. Within the 5-year period, about 25,000 and 90,000 tree stems were removed from the urban landscape in Denver and Milwaukee, respectively, ~60% of which within residential areas. The amount of removed stems and their height was also correlated to the neighborhood age. This study represents a first attempt to evaluate the spatial variation of urban vegetation structure through time, in relation to socio-economic and ecological drivers operating at landscape scale. Future work will build on these findings to unravel the concurrent effects on ecohydrological processes and ancillary benefits from such urban green spaces.